One of the many great things about the development of the internet for baseball fans is the extreme rise in the coverage of minor league prospects. Fifteen years ago it was Baseball America and perhaps one or two other places providing analysis of the minors. Today dozens of websites specialize in reporting on young players, in addition to the proliferation of blogs providing additional information on these individuals.
Unfortunately a negative consequence to this additional exposure is the rise of people calling themselves baseball scouts and stating they are “scouting”rather than in actuality “observing” games. I feel like this can be disrespectful to the individuals who earn a paycheck working in baseball.
Therefore, in the interest of offering some insight into the hard work baseball scouts go through each day, I reached out to rising superstar and Baseball Prospectus Prospect Team member C.J. Wittmann Jr. to explain what a scout does and the process of scouting prospects. Below is the transcript of our interview.
1) CJ, first place I want to start with you is pregame – Ideally when do you get to the park (do you go for BP, etc) and what are you looking for and to accomplish in the time before 1st pitch?
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“Pregame is the most important time to take in everything. Showing up to the park early is something I routinely do. I always try to get there even before batting practice starts. Sometimes teams will take infield and outfield and there players show off arm strength and accuracy. It’s most important for differentiating arm strength between outfielders and “left side of the infield” infielders. Also during pregame, pitchers throw flat grounds, bullpens and long toss. There, you can see whether a pitching has ideal arm strength, control (flat ground) and command when throwing a bullpen session.
Batting practice is the most important time to dissect a hitter. In BP, a hitter shows whether they have bat speed, raw power/strength and how much feel they have for squaring balls up. If a player has true natural feel for the barrel, they will show ideal contact skills and can usually consistently find the sweet part of the barrel on mostly every pitch.”
2) Now the game has started… What are you looking for when scouting pitching prospects?
“When scouting pitching prospects, I like to watch every single warm up pitch they throw before the inning starts. During this time, I like to take as many notes I can, as quickly as I can, on a pitchers mechanics. I do this so I don’t miss any velocity readings during the inning. Although pitchers may not throw 100% in warm ups, they still use the same mechanics. Things of note would be: arm slot, hips/shoulders in sync, landing point, arm action, angle, deception, and effort. During the inning, dissecting a pitchers’ control/command is ideal. Control is showing the ability to throw strikes in a certain vicinity while command is showing they can consistently hit their spots. Usually, I mark fastball velocity readings in the 1st, 3rd and 5th innings to see how well a pitcher holds his velocity.
3) Conversely, what characteristics or skills are you looking for when scouting a hitter? What flaws can be corrected and which are “in-correctable”?
“Scouting hitters is a bit different. Like I said, the most telling time to scout a hitter is in batting practice. First thing I look for in a hitter is bat speed. If a hitter has premium bat speed, then it allows them to make “more” mistakes in game (when guessing a pitch or two strike approach) because they have the bat speed to make up for it. In game, the easiest thing to scout is a hitters’ approach. During at-bats, you can tell if a player has a real plan at the plate or whether they are just a hacker. Although, it is easy to identify, a bad approach is one of the easier things to correct/teach.
Next, I look at pitch recognition for a hitter. Can they read spin? I’m a firm believer in recognizing and reading spin is a neurological skill. You can tell this but how a player reacts to spin. Does player x flinch? Does he bail out? Or does he recognize it and stay in and barrel the ball. Which leads to make next skill: barrel control. When a player has true feel for the barrel, they can usually barrel and square all types of pitches in every location. Lastly, I think the most correctable aspect of hitting is approach. You cannot teach bat speed and you cannot teach the neurological aspect of recognizing spin.”
4) Now the game is over… What work do you do post-game?
“Post-game, I collect all of my notes and all of my thoughts. If I am at a game with another BP member or scout, I like to pick their brain on what they saw/thought as well. I write down all of initial reactions and thoughts about each individual player and gather them into a report once I get home to my computer. I usually write out an elaborate report on players and how I feel they grow and progress as they make their way through the minors. AND my favorite post-game activity is to watch the post-game fireworks through the rear view mirror as I’m driving away.”
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Thanks C.J! Furthermore, C.J. has agreed to return for a Part-2 of this article in the near future, so if you have follow-up questions or other questions for a baseball scout, please leave them in the Comment’s Section or Tweet me @NatsGMdotcom. Thanks for reading!
I’ve seen your comments around the tweeters, but this is the first thing I’ve read and really enjoyed it. Great insight into how scouts go about their business. It’s not a knock, but I think it highlights how scouts tend to think the mental aspects are the easiest to correct, while tools can’t be taught. Obviously, this is oversimplifying things, but I think it’s why you see busts who are very toolsy, but see some prospects who lack elite tools under-valued like Matt Carpenter. Fact of the matter is, tools can’t be coached and some guys with great makeup and feel for the game will rise enough to be significant contributors, but as a percentage it’s a poorer bet to play.
Good thoughts… Thanks for reading, hope you continue to return!
I’ll admit I jotted down some notes in my iphone for the next game I attend and know what thought processes I should take when watch. Thanks for this article.